Most movie adaptations of fantasy books make disappointing changes to the source material — but over at Tor.com, Emily Asher-Perrin argues that Stardust is a rare exception. And she makes a strong case that Matthew Vaughn's adaptation of Neil Gaiman's book deserves to become a fantasy film classic.

It’s easily one of the best fantasy films of the past 20-odd years In the vein of The Princess Bride—which it deliberately mimics, after a fashion—Stardust is a movie for people who like comedy, sword fights, unlikely friends, transformations, personal discovery and above all, love. True love at its sappiest but most earnest, the sort of love that makes you feel bad for being cynical on the subject, that makes you think dash it all, I want to be loved like that and damn the consequences. We don’t make movies like that very often, and when we do they’re often trapped in layers upon sticky layers of rom-com rhetoric that suck the life out of them and highlight the cynicism for us. This is exactly what Stardust in not, and for that alone it deserves attention...

There are some movies that are designed specifically to make you so damned happy that screenings put you in danger of smiling until your face feels like it ran 5K on behalf of your legs. Stardust is one of them.